In a good example for line managers of inappropriate comments in a return-to-work interview, an employment tribunal has found that a sergeant's comments to a police officer returning to work after a stress-related absence constituted disability harassment.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld an employment tribunal decision that the claimant's assertion that his beliefs required him to take a block of five weeks' leave to attend religious festivals was not genuine.

An employer was entitled to turn down an employee's request for five consecutive weeks' annual leave in the summer to attend religious festivals with his family in Sardinia, in a useful case for employers faced with an employee asking for a long block of holiday for religious reasons.

In Garratt v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd [2011] IRLR 591 CA, the Court of Appeal held that an employee's contract contained an implied term that an enhanced redundancy payment would be made only if he signed a compromise agreement.

The Court of Appeal has upheld a county court judgment that a term implied through custom and practice meant that an enhanced redundancy payment was conditional on the employee entering into a compromise agreement.

This article summarises the main issues and outcomes in five tribunal cases where it was claimed that the employer committed disability discrimination against an employee with a musculoskeletal disorder such as back pain.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employer complied with its duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees when it moved an employee to another location where the adjustments could be more easily made.

The Court of Appeal holds that when an employer continued an investigation into the activities of a black female employee for longer than an ordinary investigation would have taken, for reasons connected with her ethnic origin, the employer subjected her to a "detriment" within the meaning of the Race Relations Act 1976. We review the case of Garry v London Borough of Ealing.

Two apparently contradictory judgements address whether treatment must have any material consequences to constitute a detriment under discrimination law. Plus, cases on Tupe, termination payments and unfair dismissal for misconduct unrelated to employment

The Court of Appeal in Garry v London Borough of Ealing has found that a black employee was subjected to a "detriment" within the meaning of s.4(2)(c) of the Race Relations Act when, for reasons connected with her ethnic origin, an investigation by her employers into her activities was continued longer than an ordinary investigation would have been.

In Garside and Laycock Ltd v Booth [2011] IRLR 735 EAT, the EAT allowed an appeal against a tribunal's decision that the dismissal of an employee for refusing to accept a pay cut proposed because of the employer's business difficulties was unfair.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, when considering whether or not a dismissal for refusing to take a pay cut was fair for "some other substantial reason", the employment tribunal should look at the reasonableness of the employer's decision to dismiss, not whether or not the employee was reasonable in refusing the reduction in wages.

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